08-18-2008
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#1 (permalink) |
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beachaholic
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: Kingwood, Texas
Posts: 338
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First time trip report to Playa !! RPDC !!
Ok, here goes, my FIRST trip report ever,,,,,, lol So, ya'll please be patient with me, k ? I know how detailed everyone gets on here so I'll try to do my best,
 We've been soooo excited about coming to Playa since we first made our trip plans. This board was so much help and I got so much good information about Playa on here so thanks again to everyone. Thursday,, yeahhhhhhhhh its finally here, and we are off !!! We got to the airport about 1 1/2 hours before the flight not knowing if there would be lines or not, but, lo and behold, barely anyone there, which was great. Note to self,,, always try to travel internationally during the week,,,, no lines. !! Hubby had lots of drink coupons so, we got ourselves started with a few bloody marys,,  It's a short flight from Houston,,, bout 2 hours, so barely enough time to nod off and we are almost there. ( I know,, you are all thinking, "nodding off?" how could she possibly be nodding off when we are almost there, after months of anticipation) but,,, I was,,,,,  ,,,,, I guess that anticipation had me already exhausted Ha !!! Truth is,,,, I can always nod off on planes or in cars,,,, the drone of the engine does that to me,  Tada, we have finally ARRIVED !!! YEAH !!!  Off the plane and down to immigration, and the lines look pretty long, but,,, we only had about a 25 minute or so wait, they were getting them through pretty quickly,,,,,,,so I was real happy about that,,,,,,:I knew others from this board were going to be in town at the same time, and saw a couple in line who resembled one of the avatars and I immediately smiled at them and asked them if they were on the playa info board,,,,, they looked at me and said, "the what?" and looked at me like I was nuts,,,,,,  ( obviously they were NOT on the playa board)  Some of the people in the lines were taking pictures, so my gf got out her camera to take some of us too,,,, and the officials told the other people to stop taking pictures,,,so, another note to self,,,, do NOT take pictures while you are in the immigration lines... Apparently that is a NO NO ! Oh well, you live and learn, lol But she got in a few before we found that out.....< my bad> And now off to get our luggage, which all arrived timely and safely and on to more lines, which were moving along smoothly also. Got the green light and we were on our way out the door !!! Awwwwwww, the heat,,,, it felt great !!!  Now, by the end of the trip I wouldn't be saying how great it felt anymore, but at the beginning I sure was,  I'm pretty well adjusted to being in hot weather being from Texas and all, but, let me tell you it was HOT in Playa,,, more so than I had anticipated. I guess you don't realize how much you are used to A/C until you don't have it in every bar, restaurant and store in town,,, lol more about the heat later,,,,,,, but,,,,,,,for now,,We are off to get our ride. We did a package tour so private transportation was included. So we find our guys in the teal shirts and white pants and head for the car. What ? we have to wait for more people before we can leave ? No no no,,,,, I don't think so !!!  We had private transportation.... we are ready to go NOW !! Ok, they find a car and we load up and are off. YEAHHHHH, we are almost there !! It was about a 45 minute drive, and we have finally ARRIVED !!! Here's a couple of pictures along the way,,, I have no idea what they were of, but I was just clicking away anyway   Pretty trees,,,,,,, 
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 Debbie Live Well, Laugh Often, Love Much !!! 2008 - The Royal at Playa Del Carmen 2009 - Mardi Gras 2009 - Cruising the Caribbean |
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08-18-2008
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#2 (permalink) | |
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Rastaman
  Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Austin Tx
Posts: 12,845
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ni
Quote:
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08-18-2008
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#3 (permalink) | |
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beachaholic
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: Kingwood, Texas
Posts: 338
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08-18-2008
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#5 (permalink) |
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beachaholic
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: Kingwood, Texas
Posts: 338
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  There it is, the Royal at Playa del Carmen, and its beautiful !!! We had already done the online checkin 48 hours earlier and gotten a GREAT room,,, Room 296,,, first choice, and it was perfect ! Overlooking the middle of the pool and a pretty view of the ocean,,,,, so to me its perfect !! Here's a few pictures of the hotel and our room     and, more important the view FROM our room,,, it was beautiful    By now its about 4:30 pm, so, we quickly unpacked a few things (didn't want to have to iron too may wrinkles out of clothes, ) and we were off to explore everything. We decided not to even do the pool as it was late in the afternoon so we just walked the hotel and grounds to get familiar with everything. It was a gorgeous day, ( as was every day we were there ) blue skies,, nice breeze, again, just perfect. And of course,, we hit the lobby bar right away and got our first offical drink,,,,,( just the first of many many many drinks throughout the week, HEY, its an all inclusive and we were determined to get our money's worth HA! )  We checked out where all the restaurants were,,,,, as we planned to eat there most of the time,,,, (again, that all inclusive part and getting our money's worth ) and then walked a bit more and made our way back to the Tequila Bar on the ground floor, tucked up underneath the stairs. Now its time for our 2nd round of drinks, and tequila based of course, and the guys proceeded to get a very thorough lesson from the sommelier on the various tequilas at the bar. They even opted to try a very expensive brand, which of course was NOT included , but,,, hey, its our first day of vacation and time to go for it..... and after a few more rounds I think the guys were feeling no pain.   By now we were getting pretty hungry,,,,,, and decided we would do the buffet at Spice for an early dinner before changing and heading out for the evening. Now I know I've heard comments on the board that a lot of people don't like the food at Spice, but we were pleasantly surprised. They had quite a variety to choose from and it all tasted pretty good to us.  No, its not gourmet, but then we weren't expecting that, so,, we filled up our plates a few times, and then back to the room to change and head out to 5th street. Time to explore what we've been hearing about for so many months. But first, one more stop at the bar for a roadie drink,,,,, !! I love that you can walk the streets with a drink,,,,, reminds me of New Orleans where I spent 20 years,,, Any place you can walk the streets with a drink in hand is a good place to me !! So, out the door and we hit 5th street and turn to the right and start exploring. Went a few blocks then turned around and headed back south on 5th. We realized that most of the action is in that direction. The streets were full of people, a slight breeze was blowing here and there, but I will tell you, it was hotter and muggier than we had expected, and that's saying a lot coming from south Texans,, We saw a lot of places that we had heard about on this board, but, rather than stop we kept exploring,,,, and walking, and drinking and people watching,,,, What a GREAT street to do all that, I loved it !! Again, being from New Orleans, it reminded me very much of Bourbon Street, but on a bigger scale, so I felt right at home !! I love the atmosphere, the music, sights and sounds, and the few air conditioned stores that we could slip into just to get a bit of cool air,,,,,,, lol    After walking the street for a while, we decided to head back to the hotel. By now we were all pretty tired. It had been a long day and we wanted to be able to get up and out for the next day, our first full day. So off we went,,,, back to the Royal and that nice COLD air conditioned room,,,,, , and after a quick dip in the ocean to cool off,,,,,, ( by the way, to let any other guests at the Royal know, they close the pool at 10 pm to put chemicals in it, so if you want to cool off after that, the ocean is your only choice) then back to the room for another cool shower to wash off the ocean salt and off to bed we went
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08-18-2008
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#8 (permalink) |
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lost on fifth
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: Bellshill Nr Glasgow, Scotland
Posts: 23
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Bontongrl...thanks for the report so far... Spent a couple of weeks in PDC back in June.. how I wish I was back there now. Here it is pouring with (cold) rain and I'm at work..Oh well.. theres always next year to look forward to. Lots more photos please!!!
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08-18-2008
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#10 (permalink) |
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beachaholic
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: Cumming, GA
Posts: 338
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Great start. What a great feeling when you finally get there and realize YOU"RE ON VACATION!!!!
The Royal is a beautiful place and it's so close to 5th Avenue. We'll be there in 19 days!!! Keep it comin....  Mike
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